Digest: Towson's Benimon is CAA Player of the Week again

USA Swimming changes Grand Prix prize money

January 08, 2013|Sports Digest

College basketball

Towson's Benimon is CAA Player of the Week again

Towson junior Jerrelle Benimon was named the Colonial Athletic Association Men's Basketball Player of the Week, the league announced Monday. It marks the fourth time this season that the forward, who transferred from Georgetown in the offseason, has won the award. Benimon averaged 18.5 points, 12 rebounds, 4.5 assists and four blocks as Towson posted road wins against UNC Wilmington and Drexel last week. Benimon ranks fifth nationally in both rebounds per game (11.7) and doubledoubles (nine).

Division III women: St. Mary's senior guard Joanna Murray(Franklin) was named CAC Player of the Week.

Et cetera

USA Swimming changes Grand Prix prize money

USA Swimming announced new details for the 2012-2013 Arena Grand Prix Series, including $150,000 in prize money. The next stop of the six-meet series will take place Jan. 18-20 in Austin, Texas, and will be broadcast on the Universal Sports Network. As part of USA Swimming's new eight-year partnership with Arena, the Grand Prix Series will offer swimmers the opportunity to win money for top finishes in all individual Olympic-distance events. In each event, first-place finishers will receive $500, second-place finishers will earn $300 and swimmers in third place will get $100. Prize money will be distributed for each meet, including the Minnesota Grand Prix, which took place in November. In past years, a $20,000 purse was awarded to the overall winner of the entire series.

Wizards: The team announced that it has waived guard Shelvin Mack. Mack, who signed as a free agent with Washington last month, appeared in seven games, including two starts, and averaged 5.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 20.1 minutes. He was originally selected by the Wizards with the 34th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft.

D.C. United: The team announced that right fullback Andy Najar is on loan with RSC Anderlecht for the month of January and will be available for selection during the time frame.

Men's college track and field: Navy freshman Jeremy Granderson was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week.

Women's college gymnastics: Maryland was selected to finish second in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League preseason poll. Votes were submitted by each head coach from the league's eight member schools. The Terps received one first-place vote and finished with 39 points, five points ahead of third-place New Hampshire. Maryland has finished third in the EAGL the past two seasons and has advanced to the NCAA regionals the past four seasons. North Carolina State, which is ranked 22nd nationally, was picked to finish first. The Terps open the season by visiting the Wolfpack on Friday at 7 p.m.

Men's college diving: Three UMBC divers — sophomores Ryan Green (Centennial) and Katie Bean and freshman Corinna Darelius — qualified for the NCAA Zones diving meet while competing against West Virginia on the team's trip to Florida over winter break. The Zones competition will take place March 14-17 at Virginia Tech. The three divers join senior Andrew Eckhoff as qualifiers for the meet; the Retrievers' four entries is a school record.

College football: J.D. McKissic set the Arkansas State single-season record for receptions and made the go-ahead touchdown catch Sunday night as the Red Wolves (10-3) won the GoDaddy.com Bowl over No. 25 Kent State, 17-13, for their first victory over a ranked team since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1992. The game was the first bowl for the Golden Flashes (11-3) since 1972. McKissic had 113 yards receiving on 11 catches, nine of which came in the first half.